Stalin retains veterans, adds 15 new faces in T.N. Cabinet

DMK president M.K. Stalin, who shall be sworn in Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu on Friday, will head a 34-member Cabinet that features veterans and 15 new faces and simply two girls. The Cabinet measurement is 4 greater than that of the outgoing Edappadi K. Palaniswami Ministry.

While previous warhorse and get together common secretary Duraimurugan would be the quantity two in the Cabinet, dealing with the newly established Department of Water Resources, the main target — in the midst of the raging second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic — is on former Chennai Mayor Ma Subramanian, who has been appointed Minister for Medical and Family Welfare, together with the Health portfolio. In the pecking order of the Cabinet, although, he’s at quantity 22.

Mr. Duraimurugan may even deal with the portfolios of Minor Irrigation, Assembly, Governor and Cabinet, Elections, Passport, Minerals and Mines.

Palanivel Thiagarajan, son of former Speaker P.T.R. Palanivel Rajan, who holds an MBA in Finance from the Sloan School of Management at MIT and was an funding banker with Lehman Brothers and later with Standard Chartered in Singapore, is about to make his debut in the Cabinet, holding the important thing portfolio of Finance and Human Resource Management.

He will equally have his job reduce out dealing with the State’s debt burden, projected to cross ₹5 lakh crore in 2021-22.

Interestingly, Mr. Stalin has retained the Special Initiatives and Special Programme Implementation portfolios, indicating that he want to straight monitor them.

He may even maintain the portfolio of Welfare of Differently Abled Persons.

The girls representatives are P. Geetha Jeevan (Minister for Social Welfare and Women Empowerment), who was a part of the DMK Cabinet between 2006 and 2011, and Kayalvizhi Selvaraj (quantity 34 in the Cabinet order), who will deal with the Department of Adi Dravidar Welfare.

The first assembly of the Cabinet shall be held on Friday night, sources stated.

DMK principal secretary K.N. Nehru, who had ensured a clear sweep for the get together in Tiruchi, will deal with Municipal Administration, Urban and Water Supply, portfolios which had been dealt with by Mr. Stalin throughout 2006-11.

While K. Ponmudi has been given Higher Education Department, which he held in the earlier DMK authorities, the get together’s resourceful chief from Tiruvannamalai E.V. Velu has been made Minister for Public Works (Buildings, Highways and Minor Ports).

Senior chief I. Periyasamy, who received the election with a file margin of over 1.35 lakh votes, has been made the Minister for Co-operatives, Statistics and Ex-servicemen Welfare.

Though the DMK fared poorly in western Tamil Nadu, 4 MLAs from the area have been given illustration in the Cabinet.

Mr. Stalin’s crew may even see the return of S. Muthusamy (Housing and Urban Development) and Rajakannappan (Transport), who shall be turning into Ministers after a spot of 25 years. Both served beneath Jayalalithaa throughout her first innings (1991-96) as Chief Minister. Mr. Muthusamy may have additionally the excellence of being a member of the Cabinets headed by three Chief Ministers — M.G. (*15*) & Jayalalithaa, each AIADMK, and Mr. Stalin. In all, eight of the minister-designates have their origins in the AIADMK.

Thangam Thennarasu, who spearheaded reforms in School Education in the Karunanidhi authorities, has been given Industries, Tamil Development, Culture and Archaeology portfolios.

Mahesh Poyyamozhi, a youth wing chief and shut buddy of Mr. Stalin’s son Udhayanidhi Stalin, will maintain the portfolio of School Education.

Senthil Balaji, a former AIADMK Minister, who had joined the DMK in December 2018, has been given the portfolios of Electricity, Non-conventional vitality sources improvement, Prohibition and Excise and Molasses. He had defeated Transport Minister M.R. Vijayabhaskar in Karur.

Anitha Radhakrishnan will get Fisheries Development whereas P.K. Sekar Babu, who too had origins in the AIADMK, will get the Puucho Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Department.

Since two senior DMK leaders from the south — Suresh Rajan and S. Austin — misplaced the election, Mano Thangaraj, who was elected from Padmanabhapuram constituency in Kanniyakumari has been accommodated in the Cabinet with the portfolio of Information Technology.

R. Sakkarapani, DMK whip in the outgoing House, has been inducted into the Cabinet with the portfolios of Food, Civil Supplies, Consumer Protection and Price Control.

Avadi S.M. Nasar, who defeated Tamil Minister Ma Foi K. Pandiarajan is the Minister of Dairy Development. C.V. Ganesan, a senior MLA from Thittakudi constituency, is the Minister of Labour.

S.S. Sivasankar is the Backward Classes Minister.

DMK’s minority wing chief Gingee K.S. Masthan will head the Department of Minorities Welfare and Non Residents Tamil Welfare.

M.P. Saminathan, who headed the Highways Department throughout 2006-11, is again as Information Minister. T.M. Anbarasan has been allotted Rural Industries.

Former HR&CE Minister K.R. Periyakaruppan will now maintain the portfolio of Rural Development whereas former Union Minister S. Reghupathy has been allotted Law, Courts and Prisons.

The different minister-designates are K. (*15*) (Forests), R. Gandhi (Handlooms and Textiles), P. Moorthy (Commercial Taxes and Registration), Siva V Meyyanathan (Environment, Youth Welfare and Sports Development) and M Mathiventhan (Tourism).